Apologies for my lack of recent posting in this blog. I am by no means abandoning this blog. It's just that, as I mentioned before, it is difficult to come up with material suitable for this format. I am continuing to work on an analysis of the NCTM Standards and hope to have some posts on this topic which will be of manageable length for this blog. I am also reading through the new (old?) California curriculum and expect to be able to compose a short review in the near future. Beyond that, I'm not sure what to do.
Comments, questions, suggestions or rants are always welcome.
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Discussion on Education (RETIRED BLOG)
About Me
- ALD
- I'm a veteran of two careers - high school math and physics teacher, retirement consulting actuary - who is now enjoying the pleasure of staying at home for my daughter. (My avatar is in honor of Will Durant, whom I consider the last true sage.)
4 comments:
Perhaps the scope of the blog should be expanded. You seem to focus discussion on mathmatics, yet not on other aspects of education in general.
For example: A teacher has filed a federal lawsuit because he was banned from distributing copies of the Declaration of Independance to his class because it contains references to God and Christianity.
http://www.charismanews.com/a.php?ArticleID=10186
Holy Misinterpretation of the Establishment Clause, Batman!!!
I was aware of that and agree that it is absurd, but I decided to stay away from that topic because (in this blog) I am less interested in the politization of the education establishment and more interested in the sheer idiocy of the education establishment.
I just realized that I failed to verbalize the second thought that I had about your comment. You are absolutely correct that I tend to focus exclusively on mathematics education. I guess this is natural, given that it is the area of education with which I am most familiar. However, my original intention was to give equal attention to other subject matter areas such as English (the "whole language" debacle) and social studies (the confusion between teaching social studies and teaching social studies EDUCATION in colleges, as indicated by one of the stories in one of my early posts).
I will try to give these non-math areas more attention in the future.
You do not have to get into a political discourse on whether distributing this document is a case of PC gone bezerk or not, but this is a historical document. The fact that thye school system wants prohibit the distribution of it because it contains the word "God" in it is absurd en extremis!
Possible scenarios in a not too distant future.
Social Studies Teacher: I want to teach about the Magna Carta and distribute copies of it for class analysis.
School Admin: I'm afraid you cant, it has the G word in it. We dont want to offend those who dont believe in this diety.
World Lit Teacher: I want to teach the Illiad and the Odessey. I want to distribute copies of these texts to my class for reading.
School Admin: I'm afraid you cant, it has references to various gods in it. Titans too! We dont want to offend those who dont believe in these dieties.
Civics teacher: With the Presidential Inauguration coming up, I want to discuss article II, section I of the constitution.
School Admin: I'm afraid you cant, it has the G word in it. We dont want to offend those who dont believe in this diety.
Civics teacher: But article II, section I of the constitution doesn't even mention God!
School Admin: Yes, but presidents, starting with George Washington have uttered the additional phrase "so help me God" at the end of the oath of office. We certainly cant have anything remotely related to religion taugh in our schools. Here, I've got an idea! Why dont you teach what's in this little red book...
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